‘We’ll burn if we don’t act now’: Philippines urged to learn lessons from Australian bushfires
MANILA, Philippines — The massive bushfires raging across Australia that have reportedly killed nearly half a billion animals are a warning to the world and should prod countries to set a firm course for climate action.
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment stressed this in a statement Monday as it called on President Rodrigo Duterte to act urgently in the face of climate emergency.
“The unprecedented Australian bushfires is the strongest warning yet that the impacts of climate change we thought we will be facing 20 or 50 years later is already a catastrophic reality today,” Leon Dulce, Kalikasan PNE national coordinator, said.
He said the Philippines—an archipelagic country vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of severe weather made worse by climate change—“must quickly learn lessons from the Australian fires and the Amazon fires, Greenland icemelts, and our very own Super Typhoon Haiyan before that.”
In 2018, environmental think tank Germanwatch identified the Philippines as the second in the list of nations most affected by extreme weather events.
A 2019 study of science organization Climate Central said areas in the Philippines home to around 6.8 million people will likely be inundated in only three decades.
“As a consistent ranker in the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, we are very much prone to both slow-onset and sudden climate shocks,” Dulce said.
Climate emergency declaration
Kalikasan PNE called on the Philippine government to declare a climate emergency in the country.
“It must convene frontline communities, local governments and civil society to thresh out a climate resilience package of program to adapt our communities and their environs to the impending consequences of the climate crisis,” Dulce said.
The climate emergency declaration must also include a moratorium on coal fired power plants, hold the world’s top polluters accountable and create mechanism on a just transition toward clean and renewable energy.
“The climate emergency can no longer be put into the political back burner by world leaders, including President Rodrigo Duterte,” Dulce said.
He added: “Our world, as we have seen in Australia, will literally burn down if we don’t act now.”
Since the start of blazes in Australia since September, 25 people have died, more than 1,800 homes have been destroyed and some eight million hectares has burned. — with reports from Agence France-Presse
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